Last week, something magical happened at Success Academy Crown Heights: when Ms. Sarnelli’s kindergarten class came back from science, they found their classroom had been transformed into a world-class farm-to-table restaurant.

Our Project Based Learning unit about the history of the New York City subway system brought us to Grand Central. The scholars had studied how the subway system was conceived in the late 19th century as an extension of the railroads that still travel in and out of Grand Central every day; they had learned about the subsequent technological and structural developments that propelled the subway system forward to meet the needs of a growing city.

Recently, The New York Times published an article about Success Academy, and it left me with a heavy heart. Success Academy is known for its joyful rigor, but the Times reporter described only the “rigor.” So I felt that I had to share my family’s experience and talk about the “joyful” part.